PAUL AMOS, MAYOR OF COFFS HARBOUR: What a wonderful progressive day for Coffs Harbour. It is my absolute pleasure to have the leader of our nation here, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. It's just an absolute blast for Coffs Harbour. Thank you for giving us your time on a weekend, I know you don't get weekends. But still, we value it so much. And without any further ado, the Prime Minister of Australia.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Paul. This has been a great honour. This is a great community here on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales and Yarrila Place will just transform it. We have a facility that provides a library, art galleries, places for communities to have meetings as well as housing the local council. And what it will do is benefit not just those people who live here, and have the great privilege of living in this magnificent community, the only place in New South Wales where the Great Dividing Range meets the sea. And this is a wonderful community. But this is a facility that will be here for generations. It will be a place of learning. It will be a place of lifting up culture and local artists. But it also will be a meeting place importantly, going forward. And I've been amazed by the thousands of people who have turned up here today to celebrate the lifting up of this community. And it's a great privilege to have been here as the Prime Minister and I thank the Council for the invitation. And I congratulate all those who've been associated with this fantastic project. Happy to take some questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you've been for a bit of a tour. What things really struck you?
PRIME MINISTER: The welcoming nature of the building. It's open, it's inviting, and it is warm. And I think throughout the building, what will happen is that people who come here will be enriched by the experience. It's a very positive building and structure. It's open, you can see right through from one side to the other. The way that the layers have been built through the different levels, the light that is available. At the same time is you have a modern media centre that will allow for digital media to be shown here. And even this cafe here, which is itself a work of art. It is a great addition to the Coffs Coast.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Paul Amos said in the speech earlier, you might be the first Prime Minister in history to come to a civic event like this in Coffs Harbour. What made you want to attend this opening in person?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I remember talking about this project with Denise Knight years ago, as the Shadow Minister for Local Government. So I know this is a project that's been on the drawing board for a long period of time. And I want to make sure that I'm the Prime Minister for the whole of Australia, whether people live in the capital cities or in the regions or remote communities. So I have been in recent months to Horsham in Victoria, I've been to regional Queensland, Gladstone and Rockhampton. I've been to regional WA, just a short while ago I was up in Karratha in the Pilbara. I wanted to be the Prime Minister for Australia. And this is a great regional project that will provide benefit for all who live in this region, but also be a real attraction for people to visit this region.
JOURNALIST: I want to ask you about something that's happened south of us here in Coffs Harbour, potential graves being discovered at Kinchela Aboriginal Boys Home. The Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister says she is deeply concerned about the discovery. The NSW Premier is promising to fund an investigation. What are your thoughts on the situation?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this is very concerning and there does need to be a proper investigation of this. These suggestions are alarming and I want to see it properly investigated, and I welcome the comments of the New South Wales Premier.
JOURNALIST: INAUDIBLE
PRIME MINISTER: We're going to make sure that the whole Australia benefits from the passing of the Housing Australia Future Fund. This is an important part of our plan for social housing. In addition to the Housing Australia Future Fund we had the $2 billion for social housing accelerator, and we have the $1.7 billion we put aside for just this year for the extension of the Commonwealth State Housing Agreement. We have $2 million in additions for community housing. So all of these projects are aimed at lifting up supply. And quite clearly, we need to do better when it comes to social housing. My government is determined to do it. And I'm pleased that we were able to pass the legislation through the Senate. And one of the things we want to do is to make sure that that is given benefit for everyone, not just the city, but also the regions. Because we know that there has been, particularly in the wake of a pandemic, many Australians have seen the advantage of living in a smaller regional community for their quality of life. So we want to make sure that social housing is accessible here. And we'll be working with state and territory governments to make sure that happens.
JOURNALIST: The New South Wales Government is seeking a commitment from the Commonwealth that the GST no-one worse off guarantee goes beyond 2026-27. Can you confirm that all states and territories will continue to receive a guaranteed minimum 70 per cent share of all GST revenue beyond that date?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course, this is about 2026-27, so it's a long way off. We're just in 2023 now. But it's not surprising that state governments will continue to put forward their suggestions. We know that there's been a review of that, and we'll continue to work constructively with state and territory governments.
JOURNALIST: INAUDIBLE
PRIME MINISTER: We are now four weeks out from the opportunity that Australians will have to vote Yes to what is a clear proposition, to vote Yes to recognition and then Yes to an advisory body on matters affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people so as we get better results. That's the question that will be before the Australian people on October 14. And what we need to do to secure a vote for Yes is to continue to run a positive campaign. We know that if we do the same thing, we can expect the same results. And the truth is that the results haven't seen a closing of the gap in too many areas. We still have a life expectancy gap of eight years. An Indigenous young male is more likely to go to jail than to go university. That's not good enough. So we will continue to present this as a once in a generation opportunity to lift up this and future generations and to close the gap.
JOURNALIST: Will you be out campaigning every day for the next four weeks?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I have a range of jobs to do. One of the jobs I have today to do was open an art gallery. And I'll continue to do a range of things. We have an employment white paper coming up. But I'll continue to campaign for a Yes vote because I believe this is an opportunity to lift up our entire nation and to have a positive step forward. I know that out there, there is a campaign being run which is negative against what is a very clear and simple proposition: Yes for recognition, Yes for a voice, Yes to get better results. And that is why I sincerely hope that Australians do vote Yes, because it is an opportunity, a once in a generation opportunity for us to show respect for Indigenous Australians, but also to lift up our whole nation, to show that we are a confident nation, a mature nation that can come to terms with the fullness and richness of our history. And that's why this will be a positive moment. It only has a positive side. There's no negative here. There is nothing to fear from an advisory group that has just the power of its ideas. So if it's a good idea, it will be listened to. If not, there's no binding nature of it on governments or Parliament to accept advice. What there is, though, is an enshrinement of the fact that there will be an advisory group, a Voice. And here today we've heard from the fact there's a local advisory group to the council that has been involved in this process. And what that has done is benefit the council with no downside, just as the Voice has an opportunity to benefit the nation with no downside.